One of the classic stunts in Washington is to vote for and against a bill. While made “voting for it before voting against it” famous, he is by no means the only practitioner. Bob Dole was eviscerated because his voting record was replete with instances of him taking both sides on a position. When the House of Representatives grabbed its collective ankles on Tuesday and | Read More »

By the time you read this, the drama may be over, the Constitution shredded, the GOP held in disrepute by everyone except the Chamber of Commerce, and gagged and shackled in a dark basement while films his “personal trainer” having his way with them, and Barack Obama on his way to unrestrained power. Leaders detailed their plan at a closed-door GOP conference meeting beginning at | Read More »

Whether by ignorance or design a large number of GOP members in the House and Senate are misrepresenting what is a stake with the funding of the Department of Homeland security. The issue has nothing to do with the operations of an agency where well over 80% of it will stay on the job regardless of what action the Congress takes. The issue is not | Read More »

As we saw last week, Speaker ‘s leadership has become so weak that he’s being forced to subcontract the Speakership to minority leader Nancy “no really, I never have to blink” Pelosi. His attempt to fund DHS for three weeks was rejected by the House, he lost 51 GOP votes. The week long extension passed because Pelosi whipped that vote, even so Boehner lost 54 | Read More »

The world is a strange place, and often times we see some of the strangest things getting worshipped as gods that bestow their graces upon their idolators. The Left is prone to this – having moved into a secularist worldview, they give up God and turn toward things of the world. They worship the environment, government, and leaders who espouse their views like Barack Obama. | Read More »

There is perhaps nothing more craven and disgusting than a man (or woman) who believes in nothing more substantial than their own self-aggrandizement put in the position of having to make a principled decision. That is what we’re seeing in the House of Representatives. House Speaker John Boehner will move a vote today on a bill that will fund the Department of Homeland Security for three | Read More »

Poll after poll going in to the election showed the same thing about voter attitudes: they disliked the Democrats, they disliked the Republicans as much or more, but they were angry about the way things were being done in Washington and wanted to send a message. The Republicans ran on virtually nothing in the way of an agenda and therefore can claim almost no mandate | Read More »

I don’t know how many of you recall the Disney animated film “Dumbo,” but there is a scene that I think is really fitting. Dumbo, the little elephant with the big ears, is written into a brand new act that involves all the grown elephants balancing on a ball (how that ball held their weight, I’ll never know). Dumbo’s job was to launch himself to | Read More »

Jeffrey Lord, a former aide to Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan, writes that, the 2013 shutdown worked and despite his vilification by the Republican establishment won. As you surely recall, the Cruz effort to defund the ever unpopular ObamaCare resulted in the biased media wing of the Democrats’ Party falling in line for President Obama and blaming his shutdown on Republicans and Conservatives. Worse was the dozens of members of the Republican establishment | Read More »

Who says bipartisanship is dead? We recently had 57 Senators and 152 House members – (obviously) culled from both Parties – sign letters to Barack Obama Administration Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. In which they expressed concern about inexpensive Korean steel being in mass quantities imported here. Interestingly, they express this concern within the context of their appreciation of the greatness and import of…fracking. The | Read More »

The pernicious effect of government warping markets is absolute – and the evidence is obvious and everywhere. When 300+ million Americans (and when 8+ billion worldwide are able to) make their own decisions, markets constantly morph to accommodate those decisions – and the maximum amount of success and happiness is achieved. When government sticks its prodigious proboscis into the private sector, things quickly go sideways | Read More »

We are free traders. We want maximum exchange – with minimum government interference. Markets always work better the freer they are. Free from all but the barest necessity laws and regulations, and the least taxes possible – up to and including none at all…. “Trade Wars” actually aren’t about trade – they are about government trade policy. If peoples are trading freely, there isn’t a | Read More »

It’s Tax Day in America. Which brings to mind one of the late, great Ronald Reagan’s many great lines: “Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April 15.” And of course Reagan was right. Taxes damage individuals, families and economies every single day of the year – not just on Collection Day. Taxes are about the | Read More »

The cinematic classic “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” made the broader public aware of the greatness that is Ben Stein. Already a lawyer and speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Stein was cast as the atonal Economics teacher droning his students into stupor. Stein was asked to improvise on camera a lecture. He chose to in part address one of the fundamental contributors to | Read More »